238 MESSRS. BLANFORD AND DRESSER ON [Apr." 21, 



than the back ; chin and middle of abdomen still lighter in colour ; 

 axillaries isabelline ; lower tail-coverts rufous. Culmen 0*65, wing 

 3-35, tail 2-35, tarsus 1. 



Hab. South Africa. 



Note. — This species has been identified by most modern writers 

 with either Saxicola sperata, Lath., or S. familiaris, Stephens. We 

 are unable to agree with either identification. S. sperata of Latham 

 (Ind. Ornith. ii. p. 523) was founded on the Traquet du Cap de 

 Bonne-Esperance of Buffon, Ois. vi. p. 123, described as having the 

 upper part of the body, including the upper part of the neck and 

 head, of a very brown green ("d'un vert tres-brun"), the two central 

 rectrices blackish brown, the two laterals marked obliquely with 

 brown on a tawny ground, the more so as they approach the outside 

 ("les deux laterales sont marquees obliquement de brun sur un fond 

 fauve et d'autant plus qu'elles sont plus exterieures). This is not 

 very intelligible ; but the word " deux " may have been inserted by 

 mistake, and it may mean that there is more brown on the outer rec- 

 trices and that the quantity diminishes gradually towards the middle, 

 the central pair being blackish brown throughout. This description 

 can scarcely apply to S. galtoni, in which the back has no green 

 tinge and the outer rectrices are ferruginous, not tawny or ful- 

 vous. 



S.familiaris, Stephens (Shaw, Gen. Zool. xiii. p. 241), was founded 

 on Le Traquet familier of Levaillant's ' Oiseaux d'Afrique,' pi. 183. 

 We quite agree with Mr. Gray in excluding this from the genus 

 Saxicola. Mr. Gray refers it to Aedon ; and Levaillant's plate 

 certainly agrees better with A. leucophrys, V., than with any Chat, 

 the breast beiug represented as spotted. The description of the 

 habits given by Levaillant may very possibly apply to S. galtoni ; 

 but Stephens's name can only be referred to the figure. 



It will be gathered from the above that we doubt whether the 

 bird referred to by Mr. Gurney, in the note to S. familiaris in 

 Andersson's ' Birds of Damara Land,' p. 104, should be called S. 

 sperata. We have seen but a single specimen of the form men- 

 tioned by Mr. Gurney, and which, as he says, is distinguished from 

 S. galtoni (his S. familiaris-) by the whitish colour of the rump. 

 The distribution of the colours on the rectrices also appears to us 

 different in the two forms. We consider the pale-rumped form 

 undescribed, but we shall not apply a new name on the evidence of 

 a single skin. 



35. Saxicola sinuata. 



Luscinia sinuata, Sundevall, Om Levaillant's Ois. d'Afr., Kong. 

 Sv. Vet. Akad. Hand. ii. no. 3, p. 44, note (1857). 



Saxicola sinuata, Layard, Birds of South Africa, p. 106. 



Adult. Upper parts dark hair-brown, rufescent towards the rump, 

 which latter with the upper tail-coverts is rufous ; quills dull black, 

 the secondaries and coverts with pale rufous margins ; tail-feathers 

 blackish brown, the basal portion and margins very pale rufous, the 

 amount of the latter colour increasing on the external rectrices, 



